Invited to do preliminary fieldwork in Myanmar
(Burma) by ichythyologist Carl Ferraris in 1997, Joseph B. Slowinski recognized the opportunity to study the rich but little known herpetofauna of the country. A year later, Slowinski and George R. Zug (National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution) submitted a proposal to the National Science Foundation (NSF) to survey and study the amphibians and reptiles of Myanmar.

Upon approval by NSF, the Myanmar Herpetological Survey begin in
mid-1999. After the untimely death of Joe Slowinski in 2001, Alan E. Leviton
assumed responsibility for the project and became the Principal Investigator
for the NSF grant. In 2005, Alan E. Leviton, George R. Zug and Jens V. Vindum were awarded a new NSF grant (DEB 0451832) to continue the herpetological survey of Myanmar.

The Project

Most of our current understanding of the Burmese herpetofauna
is based on the efforts of British officials and scientists during Britain's
colonial occupation of the country and was summarized in, The Fauna
of British India. As the title suggests, its focus was the Indian
subcontinent but included fauna ranging from Sri Lanka to Myanmar and
Thailand.

At the onset of this current project, about 350 amphibian
and reptile species had been documented from Myanmar, which is certainly
an underestimation of actual number of species. Given the confluence of
three distinct biogeographic units and the expected high rate of endemism
as well as the near-complete lack of structured herpetological surveys,
we predict that the total number of species to be found in Myanmar will
be closer to 500.

In 1999, the National Science Foundation funded a joint collaboration between the Nature and Wildlife Conservation Division, Forestry Department of Myanmar, the California Academy of Sciences, and the Smithsonian Institution (DEB 9971861) to inventory the amphibian and reptile species of Myanmar for three years. The core of the project is specimen-based surveys conducted primarily by a trained field team chosen from employees of the Nature and Wildlife Conservation Division, Forest Department. It represents the first systematic herpetological survey to be conducted in the country, and certainly, the first to be conducted primarily by Myanmar Forestry Department staff.

Project
Goals

The goals of the Myanmar Herpetological Survey Project
are:

1. To make collections of specimens, tissues samples,
and associated data to document and understand the diversity of the Myanmar
herpetofauna and its relationships to the fauna of contiguous regions;

2. To provide training to employees of the Nature and
Wildlife Conservation Division in systematics, herpetology, conservation
biology, and biodiversity survey techniques;

3. To provide the Nature and Wildlife Conservation Division
with data, reports, and publications to help them understand and conserve
their own biodiversity;

4. To help the Nature and Wildlife Conservation Division
develop the newly founded Myanmar Biodiversity Museum;

5. To promote and sustain a resurgence of organismal
biology in Myanmar.